A critical illness insurance policy is designed to provide a tax free lump sum of money in the event that you get a specified critical illness.
The advantage of a critical illness policy is that you get the money on diagnosis and can use it for whatever purposes you require.
Naturally, what you use the money for will depend on the illness but typically this will be used to pay for medical treatment that may not available on the NHS, making adaptations to your home such as ramps and stairlifts or just ensuring the bills get paid whilst you are ill.
You might just need to take it easy on a beach in the Bahamas to aid your recovery, the choice is yours.
As with most types of cover, there is a bewildering range of options available, levels of cover and insurance companies who offer critical illness policies.
Below is a guide to some of the options but you can see why getting good insurance advice is essential.
The technical descriptions of illnesses will vary from company to company, but the following core conditions are offered by virtually all insurers:
In addition to the above core conditions, the following illnesses are usually insured as well, although it depends on which insurance company is chosen:-
Most insurance companies offer policies which can be extended to include not only critical illness insurance, but also life insurance as well.
Many insurers will offer an option called indexation whereby the cover provided increases annually, normally in line with the Retail Price Index, to prevent the real value of the cover being eroded by inflation.
The policy premium may rise each time the sum insured increases.
As you can see, not all critical illness policies are the same and there are a large number of options available.
With this in mind, expert advice and guidance is readily available from our qualified advisers at Independent Mortgage Network, by telephoning on 08456 100 656 or by post / email via the 'Contact Us' page.
